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5) The fifth mental state is called subduing' (Tib dul.ba.byed-
.pa). While one is abiding in the previous mental slate of close
placement, the mind becomes very inwardly directed and a high
degree of stability exists. But. on the basis of that attainment, a
very great danger of subtle sinking exists as well. For this reason,
one especially needs to cultivate an extremely acute introspective
alertness. It has to be extremely acute, because this fault of subtle
sinking is very, very subtle and difficult to recognize, in fact, many
contemplatives of ihe pasi have mistaken a concentration in which
subtle sinking has arisen with proper and extremely fine samadhi,
They stunted their practice by failing to recognize Ihe fault of
subtle sinking and thought, instead, that they had accomplished
their goal.
To draw an analogy, if one is in a household in which Ihe other
people in the house are lavishing one with kindness, praise, nice
words and so forth while, at the same time, they are robbing one
blind, it is very difficult to recognize them because ihey seem to be
one's friends. They are much more difficult to recognize than
people who come pounding on one's door is blatant robbers ot
bandits. Those, at least, are easy to recognize. In like fashion,
subtle sinking can very easily be mistaken for proper meditation,
whereas, in fact, it is a fault which must be recognized. It is
recognized through an extremely acute introspective alertness.
6) The sixth mental state is called pacification' (Tib. zhi.barbyed.
pa). While abiding in the fifth mental state, the subduing,
which is, in fact, a very fine degree of samadhi, one is giving a lot
of effort or attention to cultivating extremely acute introspective
alertness. As a result of this, the energy of the mind increases a
great deal. With this increased and perhaps excessive energy of
mind, as one goes to the sixth mental state, there is a danger of
(ubtle excitement. To guard against this, one needs o recognize it
by means of very active introspective alertness
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